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tirsdag 13. januar 2009

Cat breeding

Cat breeding for me is a hobby and should be fun and giving, lately it hasn't. On my webpage I have made a statement saying one of my goals is to make friends and stay friends. Sometimes that is not easy or even possible. Sometimes it feels people are looking for you to make a mistake, and then will try to nail you for it. My "mistake" was breeding my female at 11 months. Apparantly this is a deadly sin. To my chritics I will say; please look in the mirror before you critizise somebody. Quite often things are not perfect there either ;0)

But how can I be sad in a home with these lovely friends? They brighten up my day :0)

9 kommentarer:

Strong words, my dear, and you have my full support. Sad that someone thinks it's ok to build mountains out of trifles. Hope everything will calm down now, so you can start enjoying our great and interesting hobby again :-)

While it would in some ways be ideal to breed a cat for the first time at a somewhat later age - 1,5 to 2 years perhaps - it is not as simple as all that. Very often the cats have their own minds about these matters.

A young male may be impossible to keep fertile for long due to hormones, and a young female may be at risk of developing uterine inflammation due to strong and frequent heats. In such situations as these, the breeder has to make choices, sometimes tough ones.

I mated my female for the first time when she was about 11 months of age. I had planned to mate her at about 1,5 years, but when the choice was between mating earlier or risking a recurrence of uterine inflammation, it was not a difficult choice.

Thumbs up to you, Sissel, and here's hoping Bagheera will have a bunch of healthy kittens!

Aino, thanks! Sure, the best thing would be to wait as long as possible especially in case of HCM, but sometimes that is not working out. I think and hope I have made a good decition mating Bagheera and Taiga. And I have to be extra careful in the next generation.

To demand that you have to follow unwritten rules are hilarious. There must be room for using common sense. So, instead of nailing you because you do not follow the recommendation, they should rater use their energy to make rules of the recommendation and then try to implement them into the rules of NRR/FIFe.

Even though you are the leader of one of the Norwegian siberian breeding counsils, no one can demand that you are following unwritten rules.

There should not be any rules, that females can not be mated, let's say under one year of age. My for-cats-only-vet thinks that such rules can be even dangerous. the modern research for feline reproduction does not support such an approach.I am very happy that we don't have in Finland such old fahsioned written or unwritten rules (at least I have not heard!). I have also mated some of my females at 10 months, because they were premature. And this was recommended by my vet. I never had any probelms so far, (neither with the cats nor with any humans)although I also prefer to have the first litter little later than that. Of course fo checking HCM it is better to try ot postpone the mating if possible.I don't think you have done anything wrong, Sissel!